Miss my big brother? Who, me?

Today is the first day in three years that I have spent at home with Nile, but without Nate. Nate is off at kindergarten, loving it, and Nile is home, loving it. Today, it's just him and me.

I realized this morning that I have NEVER had a day like this. When I was home on Mondays and Fridays with Nate, before Nile was born, I was working from home. So I would sit on the computer all day, working, while Nate played around me. I was still there with him, but I wasn't always WITH him, you know?

So today, Nile and I walked Nate to the bus stop, then came home and ate breakfast together. Then we headed to the gym. I got to the gym earlier than I may have ever gotten there. It was about 8:30 AM. After the gym, we ran to the store and then came home.

Then Nile and I baked banana cake. My mom has been training him well, he's really a great helper! He didn't spill a thing and was an excellent stirrer. We're going to have banana cake for our snack when Nate gets home from school.

After we put the cake in the oven, we played Candyland. Or, maybe I should say I got schooled in Candyland by a 3 year old. It was amazing how well and how nicely he played the game when Nate wasn't there. After Candyland we played Connect Four - well, at least we filled it with checkers...

We took the cake out of the oven, had lunch, and painted with watercolors. Then Nile found some toys and started to play. He really enjoyed being able to play with all the things that Nate usually won't let him touch (shhh...don't tell Nate!).

Here he is fixing a road, wearing Nate's new construction hat.

But the best part? Getting to play with Transformers! Nile is hardly allowed to look at these, let alone touch them or play with them. And he was so good - careful and gentle!

Right now Nile is napping, and I've had two hours of quiet. That alone is wonderful. I took a shower, frosted the cake, and have posted two blog posts. In about 40 minutes, Nate will be home from school, and I'm sure that chaos will begin. But, maybe not. Hey, a mom can always hope!

In two weeks he will start preschool. And in about six weeks, I won't have these quiet times with Nile any more...I am going to enjoy them as much as possible while I can.

Nate turns 5!

On Thursday, Nate turned 5. My little boy will be heading to Kindergarten in the fall. It's a cliche, I know, but it's amazing how fast time flies. Since we were planning a birthday party for his friends on Saturday, on his actual birthday we just had a family dinner and gifts at home.

Thanks to Gramma Elaine for sending home a giant brownie so we had something to put candles in! :)




Yeah, it was that good.


With Autobot Ironhide.


Looking at a new space book from Gramma.

I mentioned the party on Saturday. We only got one good picture that day - I did get some videos but haven't uploaded them yet.

For Nate's party, he had a Superheroes theme. He invited six friends, two of whom were unable to make it. So we had Spider Girl Emma, Wonder Woman Rachael, Batman Nathan (our neighbor), Andrew, Nile, and of course the birthday boy, who made up so many superhero names I don't know who he was.

The kids had tons of fun playing outside (see here for proof) and then we had pizza and cake. It was a perfect party - low key and laid back. No planned games and just enough guests. (It doesn't hurt when the parents stay too!) Nate had a blast and is already playing with his gifts. Now, the challenge will be to get him to write thank you cards.

And see, we did have a real cake for him!

Must be a good one...

To draw Nate's attention away from playing at the park!

(Nate got a new Transformers book from Tom today.)

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning dawned, well, relatively late for the Ryerson family. Although I was prepared for an early morning wakeup call, (mentally and physically - I actually woke up at 5:30 and laid there half awake for an hour and a half waiting for Nate to come in) both boys slept until 7.

We actually heard Nate get up and go to the bathroom - but he didn't come to get us. I wasn't sure what he was doing, and I thought maybe we had been hearing things. Then Nile started to cry. Tom got up to check on him and I followed behind. Then I see Nate's head poke out of his doorway. After telling him it was okay to come out - he came to me, gave me a big hug, and the first words out of his mouth were: "Merry Christmas, Mommy!" Not "What did Santa bring?" or "Can we open presents?" - I about melted!

It turned out Nile was hungry. When Nile is hungry, watch out! He becomes a cranky whiny kid-monster. Really. He didn't want to have anything to do with presents.

So, while Nate checked out the huge talking Optimus Prime Transformer that he found under the tree, Tom and Nile cooked breakfast.




Then we ate a nice peaceful breakfast, which was great - I love it when we can take our time on Christmas morning and really enjoy it. After breakfast we opened presents. I could share a hundred pictures of the boys opening all their gifts, but I just picked a few highlights.

The boys got Fatheads for their walls. If you don't know what a Fathead is, it's basically a life-size (or larger) sticker that you can put on the wall. They are removable and movable - Nate got Batman and Nile got some huge sports balls (baskeball, soccer ball, etc).


Nile got a Leapfrog game.


Nate got two new Mr. Men books - Mr. Christmas and Mr. Snow - and had to read them right away.


The gift that has gotten the most use by Nile so far is his $2 Play-Doh stocking stuffer.


After our morning Christmas at home, we headed up to the northern Chicago suburbs for Christmas with Tom's side of the family. We stayed overnight in a hotel, which the boys loved, opened more presents (another Transformer for Nate!) and drove home in a blizzard the day after Christmas. We had a great time, the boys were on their best behavior, and it made this Christmas a really wonderful one.

2009 Preschool Christmas Program

The annual preschool Christmas program at First Lutheran was a lot of fun, as usual. Due to a nasty bout of stomach flu, neither Tom or Nile was able to go. But luckily, Nate had already had the bug (see here) and I had yet to get it.

The program was full of the usual elements: singing, dancing, and crying. I think I've managed to have them all on this video - it's rather long but I think it was the one that best captured Nate's fine dancing skills. The crying is someone's younger brother who apparently didn't enjoy the preschooler's rendition of "Jingle Bells" as much as we parents did. (and no, it wasn't Nile - he was at home, sick, remember?)



After the program the kids all got a special gift from their teachers. Nate was beside himself with excitement over the small stuffed penguin. He promptly named it "Pen" and said it could be the "aunt" to Pete, his larger penguin at home. Later he decided that it really was Pete's son.



And then, after patiently waiting (in the photo above you see that he is sitting by Santa's chair. He didn't move from that spot until Santa asked him to come up), it was his turn to talk to the man.

He told "Santa" that he wants a Transformer for Christmas. Apparently Santa didn't know what a Transformer is (come on Santa, this is 2009!) so Nate had to explain that a Transformer is a robot.

I am still amazed that the kid who has to have me explain the details of everything (note) accepts Santa. Flying reindeer, presents for every child in the whole world, magic elves: this is all accepted without question. Oh, well.

ColorSplash

I downloaded a new program for the iPhone that lets you selectively remove (or add) color into a photo. It really makes average photos look great, I can't wait to use it on a good photo!

Tough dreams

I know I posted a picture of Nate sleeping in the car recently. But
this one is pretty funny. I wonder if he's dreaming of being a
Transformer?

It's a Transformers Party!

I thought that I'd share a few of the photos from Nate's birthday party we had at the farmhouse yesterday. It was the perfect sort of party - laid back and very little work to set up!


Nate with his Transformers birthday cake.

Blowing out the candles (he did get all 4 out). Emma and Nile were very interested, notice the look on Scott and Andrew's faces - I didn't even notice at the time that Andrew was covering his ears (for what reason I do not know)...


Cake-eating kids...


And yes, he did love each and every Transformer he got! The look on his face with this one is priceless!

4 years old and still growing

As I mentioned earlier, Wednesday was our first night in our "farmhouse" and it was also Nate's birthday. We are having a small "official" party on Sunday for family and friends, but we didn't want to let his birthday go uncelebrated.

So we had a small birthday party at the farmhouse for Nate. He got to open gifts from us and enjoy some birthday cupcakes.

(By the way, huge THANK YOU to Grandma Elaine for supplying the cupcakes, and for keeping the boys overnight on Tuesday. It was an enormous help...)

The favorite gift of Wednesday? The Transformers beach towel, of course. (also from Grandma)


And here's a video of him blowing out his candles.

death of galvatron

Here is proof that the age recommendations on children's toys are sometimes valid. I found these pieces scattered around the living room while Nile was napping.

Now that I think of it, I vaguely remember a "No, Nile! That's Galvatron!" earlier this morning.

more than meets the eye

Nate's new love is Transformers. Tom is in second heaven now that Nate is interested in something that he loved as a child. By the way, it is true - the old ones are WAY better than the new ones. Two middle school principals, an engineer, and a pharmacist have had trouble with the one we bought Nate for Christmas. The originals, he can play with easily.

Tom and Nate playing.

Nate's favorite: Optimus Prime

Nate is also enjoying watching old Transformers cartoons on YouTube, although we are having a little trouble explaining all the violence and that it's not okay to play "shooting." Last night he was almost in tears as I tried to explain that the Transformers are imaginary - he really wanted to believe that the planet Cybertron is real, and is near Mars.